FORT PIERCE FOLKS
GREG GARDNER
This display documents the career of Lt. Col. Pete Peterson with two ranks
for his service in the U.S. Air Force and Army Air Corps. The second medal
from the right, bottom row, was awarded by the Russian government for his
role as navigator in ferrying planes during World War II.
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Peterson straightened it out. The frantic pilot jumped back
into his seat, feathering the propeller on the dead engine, and
the crew landed safely in Africa with the one good engine.
The meticulous records kept by Peterson included one trip
that took 72 hours from Karachi, Pakistan to Nashville, Tennessee.
Peterson was navigator in a B-34, which had a plywood
cap that would come off so he could stick his head out and
get the reading. He had to be tied down on the left and right
so unexpected turbulence wouldn’t pop him right out of the
airplane.
The day before the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of France,
Peterson’s plane was ordered to fly farther from the coast, but
the crew could see the massive armada of ships and knew
what was going to happen next.
When they weren’t flying, Peterson and his crew members
danced with nurses in Paris, ate monkey stew in Africa and
toured the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Pyramids of Giza
in Egypt.
After the war, Peterson was a first lieutenant and he stayed
on in the Air Force Reserves. His longtime friend, pilot David
Putnam, invited him to Fort Pierce, where he fell in love with
the area and his future wife, Olive.
Peterson was activated for duty in the Korean War, but he
never left the country, ferrying airplanes around the mainland
U.S. Enlisting in the original Army Air Corps as a private,
he would retire from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant
colonel. His family moved several times before settling back
in Fort Pierce.
Like his mechanically inclined father, Peterson had a
second career as a contractor, building houses, subdivisions,
gas stations, fruit stands and just about anything else people
needed in Fort Pierce. A chance encounter with the late
Alto “Bud” Adams led to a lifelong friendship as Peterson
repaired a barn to begin with and then went on to construct
new buildings and houses on the sprawling Adams ranch
west of Fort Pierce.
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This chart from his book, My Dipper is Full, details the flights of celestial navigator Pete Peterson as he steered airplanes across the Atlantic Ocean during
WWII. He was the navigator for 48 missions, including 114 Atlantic Ocean crossings in 15 different types of aircraft.